South Korea and Vietnam will hold a fresh round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement this week, the South Korean government said Tuesday.

The fourth round of FTA negotiations between the two countries will be held in Ho Chi Minh City from Wednesday to Friday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

"At the upcoming fourth round of negotiations, the two countries plan to hold in-depth discussions on various areas, such as products, service, investment, country of origin, customs and cooperation," the ministry said in a press release.

Negotiations for the Korea-Vietnam FTA were launched in September 2012 with the latest round held in South Korea's port city of Busan in October 2013.

Vietnam is South Korea's sixth-largest trading partner, purchasing $21.09 billion worth of products from South Korea last year, according to the ministry. South Korea is Vietnam's 16th-largest trading partner, with its imports from Vietnam surging 25.4 percent on-year to $7.17 billion in 2013.

Vietnam is part of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with which South Korea signed an FTA in 2009. The Korea-ASEAN FTA went into effect in 2010. (Yonhap)